#i am beginning to think that jadzia was just not a writers' favorite so they were often just like Ok Fine Good Enough w characterization

[isthereintruthnobeauty1968]

meridian/3.08

[fandomn00blr]

for the writers asks: 1 (I just wanna hear you talk about Morrigan, mkay?), 2, 7, 16 and 17, and 38!

1. What’s your favorite character(s) to write for? 

I know I already answered this here, but I will not turn down a request to talk more about Morrigan! ❤️

Where to even begin, tho? I played DAI first (of course), so I was just kinda “meh” on her character. I mean...she’s hot, right?...and I love a smart goth lady who knows what she wants and has little patience for the rest of us. There was just so much else going on in that game, and I hadn’t really figured out the whole Flemythal thing.

It wasn’t until my second playthrough of DAO, after DA2, on the tenth anniversary of the game, when I was playing an Amell romancing Leliana that I really fell in love with Morrigan and her story and her whole...deal. I try not to take any of that edge or prickliness away from her, because I think people develop these ways of interacting with others for reasons (which I, of course, love to explore in my writing). And also, she’s really funny! Even Alistair has to admit that (before he realizes he, too, is in love with her ten years later). I eventually got impatient writing my “definitive” playthrough fic for my Amell and just skipped ahead to post-game, Morrigan having just given birth and Alistair being a mess about it, and that’s how Kieran happened...lol.

I always hated the whole “oh, being a mother softened you” shit they tried to pull with her (if she has Kieran with her) in Inquisition. First of all, children aren’t just plot devices for making us ‘better’ or more complete people or whatever. I mean...this witch knows how to turn into a fucking bear and her kid, in my world state anyway, has the soul of an Old God! So, like...I forgot my point. But grrrrr (personal baggage activated)! Still, in spite of that, and in spite of the less-than-ideal example of motherhood she got from Flemeth, she is a good mom, and I wanted to show that she could be without some kind of huge fundamental shift in who she was or whatever some people think she needs to be palatable (these are theoretical people I’ve never actually met that I am fighting in my head, mind you...).

Another thing I love about writing her is that she’s smarter than me. I write a lot of chaotic dumbasses. But Morrigan knows more than I do, and she’s very savvy (I am not), and that’s a really fun challenge to work with. I’d be lying if I didn’t also take just as much delight in occasionally revealing to her where her own blindspots are, but to be honest, even then, she usually surprises me.

2. What character(s) do you find the most difficult to write for? Why?

So my previous answer was Jadzia Dax, but I’ll go ahead and add Anders Dragon Age here, too. I love the guy. I love writing about him. I love writing other people thinking about him. But writing as him is really hard for me (and yet I still try)!

I recently played a monster hunter TTRPG with some friends in which I played a sort of Anders-like character just to be Like That (“you’re just playing yourself!” they cried, and let’s not think too much about that). I thought it’d be easy, but it was not (I mean, I still ended up with the grumpy broody character in the end, but... 😉).

7. What story/headcanons do you feel the proudest of?

I still love my currently-sort-of-on-hiatus Lost and Found series, and that’s probably because I realized Fenris is writing the whole damn thing (with some input from a few others along the way). I am proud of that little conceit, even if it hasn’t really come into play yet (the big reveal is like, 40 years away in the timeline!) in what has actually been published. The whole series is a sort of break-it-then-fix-it for the events of endgame DA2 and I just...kept running with it.

16. What fanfic tropes do you avoid writing for?

lol...avoid? Me?! Not very many. I like to play with tropes, combine them, embrace them, twist them, turn them inside out and upside down...but I also don’t mind just writing a straightforward trope-filled drabble when the mood strikes (give me bed-sharing and enemies-to-lovers in a soulmate coffeeshop AU and I will WRITE THAT SHIT!).

Ok, fine, so you probably won’t see me writing any A/B/O fics anytime soon (doesn’t mean I won’t read it!). And I tend to avoid things that glorify abuse of any kind, sexual violence, and/or rape/non-con.

17. What fanfic tropes do you gravitate to writing for? 

I write a lot of fluffy found family and parent fic, because a lot of my favorite characters are just assholes trying their best to not fuck up their relationships or their kids. I’m sorry. I promise I try to keep it spicy, and maybe sometimes a little bit too realistic for some people. I wouldn’t call any of my writing ‘dark’ or disturbing, but there are a lot of underlying anxieties to it I think that make some people uncomfortable. But this is cheaper than therapy, soooo...

38. What story of yours are you surprised that people liked as much as they did? 

My only non-DA story...lol, a Seven Deadly Sins (anime) fic, called Walls Tumbling Down, focused on Jericho and her time with Ban and King between some major events in the show (see, even talking about it like this makes me giggle nervously because these are not characters I have ever engaged in discourse about!). I’m not part of the fandom, so I really had very little to go by other than my frustration with how the character was treated in the source material (in this case, just the show, because I never even read the manga!). But it was one of the first pieces of fan fic I ever sat down and started to write and share. It’s also my most popular fic to date on AO3 (I should probably take a hint, huh?). This was probably supposed to be my lesson in the differences between fandoms and audience reception, wasn’t it?

[lodessa]

Fic Writer Tag Game

tagged by @janiedean, @thank-god-and-you, and @fanoftheknight!

AO3 name: lodessa 

Fandoms:  Okay, I’m splitting this up because I have written in too many!

Major:

Star Trek: Voyager (72)

Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire (48)

Real Person Fiction (24)

Veronica Mars (24)

Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling (21)

Mid-level:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer /Angel the Series (15)

Star Trek: Discovery (10)

The Office (US) (8)

Doctor Who (6)

Revolution (TV) (6)

Firefly/Serenity (6)

Grey's Anatomy (5)

I Dabbled:

Longmire (TV) (4)

The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher (4)

Arthurian Mythology (3)

Arrow (TV 2012) (3)

His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (2)

Ancient Greek Religion & Lore (2)

Bones (TV) (2)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2)

Codex Alera - Jim Butcher (2)

One Offs:

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Dollhouse, Almost Human, Star Trek: The Next Generation, iZombie, Watchmen, Big Love, Babylon 5, Rome Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Journeyman.

Number of fics: 276!

Fic I spent the most time on: Salvation and Rapture For the Lonely (Doctor Who, Martha/Nine), which I started in 2008 and finished in 2018!

Fic I spent the least time on: That is a many way tie.  I used to write a lot of short quick things.

Longest fic: (Discounting my co-authored works) Parameters (Star Trek: Voyager, Janeway/Chakotay) at 46,345 words.

Shortest fic: One Dance (Star Trek: Voyager, Janeway/Chakotay) at 141 words (because I tend to stash drabbles into a work collecting multiple rather than spam the tag)

Most hits: Temptations of the Flesh (A Song of Ice and Fire, Jon Snow/Melisandre, Sansa/Littlefinger) at 15,327 hits (apparently people really like dark fic)

Most kudos: Parameters (Star Trek: Voyager, Janeway/Chakotay) at 507 kudos.

Most comment threads: Dragon Marked (Game of Thrones, Daenerys/Jorah) with 92 comment threads for the 8 currently published chapters... which I really need to continue.

Most bookmarks: No Longer the Maid of Tarth (A Song of Ice and Fire, Jaime/Brienne) with 78 bookmarks

Total word count:  872,893 words

Favourite fic I wrote: I am terrible with favorites... truly. 

Fic you want to rewrite/expand on:

Not counting my WIPs (Stumbling [Star Trek: Voyager, Janeway/Chakotay], k’war’ma’khon [Star Trek: Discovery], and Dragon Marked [Game of Thrones, Dany/Jorah]. ) 

I would say The Smallest Twine (Star Trek: Voyager, Janeway/Chakotay... though the two planned sequels open up into TNG and DS9 as well), which is an AU Prequel for Voyager, but also sets up the possibility of a very different trajectory for the end of the Cardassian War (as explored by all three 24th century Trek series).  Butterfly effect and all that.  

Share a bit of a WIP or a story idea you’re planning on:

Since I was tagged multiple times, I’ll preview a couple things I am (theoretically) working on.

For @janiedean, my ASOIAF book!verse canon compliant Jaime/Brienne, Davos/JonC, Sansa/Aegon someday maybe epic:

“I thought she’d be safe here…” Brienne called out to herself as much as Jaime as their captors shoved her forward away from him, feeling foolish for having thought the wars would have left her home untouched.  “I thought we all would be.”

I should have known, she felt, even as she knew there was no reason for her to have suspected.  Perhaps, if they had lingered longer in White Harbor, they might have heard word of the raids surrounding Cape Wrath.  But how could they have?  They were none of them inconspicuous, even with Sansa’s hair dyed.

The Kingslayer and two women who half of Westeros believed to be the same. A fine catch for mercenaries to sell to the highest bidder.   How could you have been so stupid? she berated herself.

That said, though the Golden Company named Westeros as their home, these men came from Essos, perhaps these soldiers wouldn’t recognize the maimed lion they had captured, wouldn’t see the wolf disguised as a bird.

Brienne, alone, was not worth ransoming to anyone other than her own father, surely.   Assuming he was alive to ransom her to, that was.  Brienne shuddered to think of the alternative, of some mercenary captain who decided he wanted to legitimize his claim to this island, no matter the cost, no matter how her already ugly face had been disfigured.

For @memoir-of-stars and @fanoftheknight, the drunken Dany/Jorah Game of Thrones AU fic I promised someone (I think it was @salzrand) last summer:

“The Donrish seem to have as many vineyards as the Dothraki have horses,” he heard Daenerys remark to Jorah, leaning halfway over him to look out the carriage window, her hand gripping his shoulder for balance.

“You wouldn’t think it, with the price the resulting wine fetches,” Ser Jorah replied, catching Daenerys with surprisingly steady hands as the carriage hit a rock and jostled them all.  

Daenerys allowed herself to be drawn back down onto the cushions beside Mormont, curling herself up against his side and resting her head against his shoulder.   Tyrion wasn’t sure what to make of the tableau they formed, her so slight and blossoming and him solid and weathered.  Mormont, he knew, was devoted to Daenerys beyond any doubt, and in every sense of the word but he was beginning to suspect he’d misjudged the nature Daenerys’ attachment to her bear, as she could so often be overheard calling Ser Jorah.

“Lemon trees!” the queen called out in obvious delight, interrupting Tyrion’s musing and reminding him once again how young the usually composed Daenerys really was.

And one more for good measure (since that was three tags), the Deanna Troi/Jadzia Dax Star Trek: TNG and DS9 crossover PWP I need to finish someday

“I hope I’m not overstepping.”

Standing in her doorway is Deanna Troi, Daughter of the Fifth House of Betazed, all soft curls and soft curves and a gentle unpresuming air that contradicts and heightens the impact of those things.  Jadzia is intrigued… okay she was already intrigued: now she’s closer to enchanted.

“Step all you want,” Jadzia keeps the tone of flirtatiousness in her voice light, knowing that the empathic counselor will be bound to notice it but letting it be something she can choose to react to or not.

Doubtless, she’s here about Worf.   She’s pretty sure everyone from here to the promenade heard their last row and, of course, Troi was there for the start of it.   

That’s okay with Jadzia.  There aren’t that many people who’ve seen certain sides of Worf, who understand him. (Sometimes Jadzia isn’t even sure she’d put herself in that number.)  It would be a relief to talk to someone who gets it.

“I feel like I owe you an apology, Jadzia.  Is it alright if I call you Jadzia?”

You could call me just about anything and I’d like it,  that wicked little Dax voice suggests, but it just brings a smile to her face.

Tagging: @joyful-voyager, @toas-tea, @ghostcat3000, @pixiedane, and @sophia-helix.